A man accused of keeping a woman hostage in a California hotel room and possibly being linked to a murder on the opposite side of the nation was using a dating websites, investigators say.

Danueal Drayton, 27, is believed to be linked to the killing of Samantha Stewart, 29, in New York. Stewart’s body was discovered by her father when her coworkers said she never showed up for her shift as a nurse.

Advertisement

Kenneth Stewart said he arrived to find his daughter in a pool of her own blood reportedly with all of her teeth knocked out.

Investigators eventually used the information gathered from her death to link the crime to an incident in Los Angeles.

Police said Drayton was holding another woman captive in a North Hollywood hotel room.

Authorities said the link between the incidents is the use of dating websites. In this case it was the dating app Tinder. Drayton allegedly swiped right on the women, which would lead to an in-person meeting.

“It is believed by us that this individual uses dating websites to meet women and then victimizes these women,” New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea told reporters at a news conference last week.